Home late after coming back from yesterday's game against NJ. Just finished watching after the SB.

They played very well until as mentioned they flubbed many, many clearing attempts in the 3rd. Letang was absolutely brutal in his own end. The Caps came hard in the 3rd but Vokoun stayed strong. Once again Ovechkin gets nothing called until he finally mugged Adams at the end. On one shift he slashed Crosby three times within about a 5 second stretch - all with the puck on Crosby's stick. He left his feet again on a few occasions, but we know that will never be called.

i can honestly say, Ovie doesn't scare me anymore. When he played the pens i would hold my breath every time he had the puck because he absolutely killed us. Now if he gets a point i am a little shocked. Whatever the reason be for his drop off system/coaches/roids.etc. That holy pizza factor is gone from his game.

To be honest i am disappoint because as a hockey fan, he was fun to watch, he could do anything he wanted with the puck. You have to wonder if he goes through this season and next season with low production, do you buy him out. 10 mil a year for a player putting up 5 mil a year numbers is a tough pill to swallow

darkstar57 wrote:i can honestly say, Ovie doesn't scare me anymore. When he played the pens i would hold my breath every time he had the puck because he absolutely killed us. Now if he gets a point i am a little shocked. Whatever the reason be for his drop off system/coaches/roids.etc. That holy pizza factor is gone from his game.

To be honest i am disappoint because as a hockey fan, he was fun to watch, he could do anything he wanted with the puck. You have to wonder if he goes through this season and next season with low production, do you buy him out. 10 mil a year for a player putting up 5 mil a year numbers is a tough pill to swallow

This

x1000

Sucks for the game itself. With this guy playing the way he has and the current state of their organization they just do not scare me the way they used too. As much as it pains me to say this the Isles are more feared to me then they are.

CERV96 wrote:Over the past 3 seasons I am actually starting to agree with Doc on this whole roids thing. Ovie has been non-existant since the whole Caps/doctor thing.

I think teams also know how to neutralize him better than they did in the past, but I agree that its not JUST other teams abilities that have changed. I'm surprised there has been no "he has an underlying but significant injury that forced him to change his game", type of excuse made. Then again, his game hasn't changed much, either.

Ovenchicken is either:A) Too fat on money as he got the paycheck now.B) Not surrounded by enough top end talent and cannot be a 1 man show.C) Trying to change his game but is not talented enough to add to his arsenal.D) All of the above.

There are a few possible scenarios to explain his statistical drop off, and they are all pretty damning.

-steroids-he is a one trick pony, and his trick was figured outI-he is unwilling to work hard enough to exist on anything other than talent-he is unwilling to play a style that would benefit the team more than him.

I wasn't able to watch the game, other than about 30 seconds late in the second period (Verizon customers with 4GLTE phones get NBC games for free on GameCenter!), but Oates had a quote at the end of the game along the lines of "We played pretty well today. The Pens only scored on what we gave them." Is this delusional? From what I've read, there was a push late in the game from the Caps...but is his statement accurate?

Digitalgypsy66 wrote:I wasn't able to watch the game, other than about 30 seconds late in the second period (Verizon customers with 4GLTE phones get NBC games for free on GameCenter!), but Oates had a quote at the end of the game along the lines of "We played pretty well today. The Pens only scored on what we gave them." Is this delusional? From what I've read, there was a push late in the game from the Caps...but is his statement accurate?

weird take on the game, oates.

hopefully he actually believes what he's saying. delusion is maybe the best way for a coach to screw up his team.

I ALMOST feel bad for Caps fans, at least the handful of decent fans that just wanted to see their team be rebuilt on a star the same way the Pens have, a la Mario or Sid & Geno. It's actually kind of disturbing to hear Caps fans refer to Ovie's contract as an albatross at this point.

I think a lot of it is that Ovie lacks motivation. Maybe sometimes he gets a jump in his step when he plays Crosby and Malkin, but even last night by his expectations, he flat out sucked. I don't know if it's anger at being reigned in, or being Captain, or just an unwillingness or inability to change, but I think it's mental. I don't think his body has broken down.

All that said, I never thought I'd say this and maybe I'll regret it, but even though I think the guy is a bumhole when he hurt players -- it was far more interesting when he didn't suck like he does now. Even though it made my blood boil it was still entertainment overall and good for the game.

Not sure if it mentioned elsewhere...but Kunitz was re-credited with that goal that was given to Martin. They've changed it back to Kunitz from Martin and Crosby. So that's a 4-goal game for Kunitz, the first by a Penguin since Jagr over a dozen years ago...

mikey287 wrote:Not sure if it mentioned elsewhere...but Kunitz was re-credited with that goal that was given to Martin. They've changed it back to Kunitz from Martin and Crosby. So that's a 4-goal game for Kunitz, the first by a Penguin since Jagr over a dozen years ago...